The 2018 PEN America Literary Awards Finalists

PEN America is thrilled to announce the 2018 PEN America Literary Awards finalists. Our awards are juried by panels of esteemed, award-winning writers, editors, booksellers, and critics. Learn more about each of the PEN America Literary Awards judges here.

This year’s awards will confer nearly $315,000 to writers and translators whose exceptional literary works were published in 2017 and span fiction, nonfiction, poetry, biography, essays, science writing, sports writing, translation, and more.

The winners were announced live at the 2018 PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony on February 20 at the NYU Skirball Center in NYC.

PEN/Jean Stein Book Award ($75,000)

To the author of a book-length work of any genre for its originality, merit, and impact, and that has broken new ground by reshaping the boundaries of its form and signaling strong potential for lasting influence.

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy, Ta-Nehisi Coates (One World)IndieBound | Amazon

You Say to Brick: The Life of Louis Kahn, Wendy Lesser (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)IndieBound | Amazon

Lenin: The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror, Victor Sebestyen (Pantheon)IndieBound | Amazon

PEN/E.O. Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing ($10,000)

For a book that exemplifies literary excellence on the subject of the physical or biological sciences and communicates complex scientific concepts to a lay audience. JUDGES: Luke Dittrich, Deanna Fei, Dr. Carl Hart.

American Eclipse: A Nation’s Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World, David Baron (Liveright)IndieBound | Amazon